Swedish wave energy developer CorPower Ocean has secured €9 million equity funding for its breakthrough wave energy tech.
Midroc New Technology led the funding round, with additional investment from ALMI Invest Greentech, EIT InnoEnergy, and private investors.
The company will use the funds to demonstrate the first commercial scale WEC within its flagship HiWave-5 project.
CorPower also intends to boost the long-term development of supply and service capacity for commercial wave energy farms.
The equity funding should also support CorPower’s pan-European efforts in Sweden, Portugal, Scotland and Norway.
Patrik Möller, CEO of CorPower Ocean said:
“This funding package marks another significant milestone in the firm’s mission to introduce a new class of certified and warrantied WEC products.
“We are pleased to see continued strong support from investors who share our vision of bringing reliable and competitive wave energy technology to the world, unlocking one of the largest untapped sources of clean energy on earth.”
The HiWave-5 demonstration project aims to convert CorPower’s wave technology into a bankable product by 2024.
This should also unlock mainstream renewable project financing for commercial array projects developed by CorPower’s customers.
This funding comes shortly after CorPower released plans for a new €16-million R&D, manufacturing and service centre in Portugal .
The site will become a core focus for the HiWave-5 project with a showcase pilot wave farm planned in Aguçadoura.
Ingvar Eriksson, BCO of EIT InnoEnergy Scandinavia said: “We have supported CorPower since 2012 and are happy with progress made to this point, having proven the principles and physics of the technology at sea.
“InnoEnergy has evaluated many ocean energy technologies and found CorPower advancing to a leading position in the race to make it a mainstream energy source.
He added that InnoEnnergy believes CorPower can play a significant role in the evolving sustainable energy mix.
Andreas Gunnarsson of Midroc New Technology also said:
“CorPower keeps delivering on targets and their prudent step-by-step approach brings credibility to the sector.
“This technology definitively has the capacity to make the world a better place and we are happy to see more and more of leading utilities and project developers engaging.”
Markus Hökfelt of ALMI Invest Greentech said:
“We see wave energy as a key technology in the transition to a 100% renewable electricity system.
“Wave energy can become a balancing source that enables high penetration of renewables with the lowest possible system cost.”